The Mystery of Equestria
by Tw1 Spark1e
Summary: Book 4 of the Smarty Heart series. Months after the Maleficia incident, Smarty and his friends must face the ultimate sacrifice to solve the mystery of Equestria and stop an evil villain of the past bent on destroying everything and stealing all of their magic and powers. AU.
1. Prelude

**A/N: It's... back! Just when you thought it was over, there's one more left to go.  
**

**The reason why I had decided to go back to the Smarty Heart series again for one more shot was because the idea came to me while watching mid to Season 4 finale and the fact that I'll be heading to college this September. That's right, I got accepted into college. *audience gives round of applause***

**But to anyone who is currently reading my other story that's completely original, "Learning To Live", I will try to update on it whenever possible one chapter at a time. But let me get on to other news.**

**THIS FOURTH BOOK IS THE FINAL BOOK. NO EXCEPTIONS. After this book is finished, there won't be any further activities related to the Smarty Heart series. I want to move onto other projects in the real world you might know me by when I'm all done. After the epilogue is written, I will personally write an extra chapter not related to the story, but more to thank everyone who was reading this and reviewing the series, yada-yada with a few Author's notes that will acknowledge the problems that came and went for the entire series. An example would be: the LONG hiatuses to finished the third book "Fire Phoenix". My goodness, those were the most frustrating for me because of writer's block. Even then, I still suffer from it.**

**I'm hoping to have this final book of the series end on both a sad and a happy note. Some may die, some may live: it all depends on what happens in the final battle and the sacrifice to bring down the bad guy in order to save Equestria, whether it's favorite characters or OCs that you submitted. It's for the fact that I've caught onto the entire "Mary Sue" and "Gary Stu" terms of fanfiction writing. That is why I am going to be strict for this final book. No Gary Stus or Mary Sues, plus all OCs are locked in, so no more can be submitted.**

**By the way, I don't own My Little Pony. I already know that Hasbro owns it. I just love writing fanfiction of it when I can. But for now, let us get onto the first three chapters of "The Mystery of Equestria". Here we go... *awkward pause* Really? An entrance like that to make for myself?**

**Twilight: Um, I think you have one more thing to say.**

**Never mind! One more thing. Besides this series ending in a few months, feel free to also check out my other fanfiction "Learning To Live". Sorry, no OCs are allowed in that one. And a heads up, I know you'll miss the series once it's finished, but I won't say farewell, just feel proud of the achievements your OCs did in this story and how they did so at doing it. So this is basically a last chance to check up on your submitted OCs. I'll speak to you again at the end of the story! But will occasionally leave Author's notes this time.**

**Twilight: Good job! Now start the story for them!**

**Rita: Yeah, I want to see some action!**

**Alright you two, calm down. It begins now. This is "The Mystery of Equestria". Well, the first three chapters as I stated before.**

**With friendship,  
Tw1 Spark1e**

* * *

**Four Months Later…**

It has been four months since the defeat of the four human leader's evil sister Maleficia. Most of the dragons that had been working with her in the capture of Equestria were reverted back to their normal selves and had no clue about what had happened, but they were forced as punishment to clean up the streets of Canterlot, home of Celestia and Luna. They were even forced to take down the statues of Maleficia they had placed all over Canterlot. They had replaced the statues of the Alicorn sisters while this had occurred.

After the cleaning of Canterlot, the dragons involved with Maleficia's crimes were put on trial and they were forced to plead themselves guilty after Princess Celestia used a memory spell and showed before them: their merciless crimes. As punishment and the final verdict: They were to do community service around Equestria for at least two months. The months passed and Equestria had been restored back to normal and the dragons were allowed to go back to their mountains to sleep. But even the dragons that destroyed Manehattan were forced to rebuild it with everypony before flying off.

In the previous month since the dragons' punishment, Princess Celestia and Reina had passed a bill that they suspected everypony would listen to quite well. The bill was known as "Peace and Unity", and it was meant to make sure that there will be peace in any of the regions of Equestria without any trouble or betrayal. Of course, without the heroes of Equestria wielding the seven Elements of Harmony, the bill would not have passed and Equestria would still be in ruins.

* * *

**Night before the Day of the Summer Sun Celebration**

Smarty stands over the balcony overlooking Equestria, proudly watching over the small humans and ponies that worked together to get the evening back to their homes for a good night's rest. He lets out a very small smile when his eyes turn to the left slightly and he sees the stone statues of him and the human leaders known as "Reina", "Rose", "Sara" and "Rita" standing there. It was the very spot where he and them had fought and defeated Maleficia. But it wasn't him alone, it was with his friends and the power of friendship.

Celestia knows what could have happened to Equestria if it was the opposite and he was killed in the fight against her, she might have gone off and destroyed all the other leaders in control of Equestria and let the mind-controlled dragons take over as superiors with her on the throne. Ponyville would have been thrown into chaos and been the next disaster area.

The sound of hooves was heard trotting onto the balcony, catching Smarty's attention. He turns around and his smile grows warming. It was his wife Twilight, and his two children Dream Charmer and Starlight. They seemed rather happy to see Smarty.

"My family." Smarty says, offering them to come closer for a family hug. "Come to Papa. He wants to see you."

Starlight and Dream Charmer bounced forward towards their father and both began to hug him. He in return shared a hug with the both of them. After the hug, they let go and look up at their father. "Are you excited for tomorrow morning?" Smarty asks the both of them.

"Yes Daddy. We can't wait to see Princess Celestia raise the sun and Princess Luna lower the moon." Dream Charmer said to him.

Starlight says "I just hope we'll be allowed to get up early to see her raise the sun."

"And I assure the both of you that you'll be able to see this moment. It'll be something you'll never forget." Smarty says, giving the both of them a pat on the head.

Twilight trots forward towards her husband, she is giggling. "Alright now, the two of you have some sleep to catch up on. Tomorrow morning is a big day for the two leaders of Equestria."

Starlight looked curious. "But mommy, aren't you a princess? You do have the wings after all and are the Princess of Magic. And Princess Cadence rules the Crystal Empire." He asks.

"Yes Starlight. Mommy is a leader, but I don't have my throne just yet." Twilight said, looking down at her young son.

Dream Charmer bounced up and down, saying "If you do get your own throne, I bet it will be a castle built just for you."

"Yes, yes." Twilight says, blushing a bit in embarrassment. "Now off to bed you two, you don't want to feel tired."

"Okay mommy." Dream Charmer says, yawning a bit. "Come on Starlight."

The two young foal and filly trot off into the castle and Twilight faces her husband once again. She is smiling at him.

"Hey." Smarty says, taking his wife's hoof and holding onto it. The both of them share a gentle kiss with one another on their lips. "What's on your mind?"

"Nothing Smarty, just you. But there is one other thing. Since Equestria's been restored, I can't help but feel that something is missing from me. Sure I'm a princess now, but I don't have a throne yet." Twilight says, sounding a bit disappointed.

Smarty uses his hoof, letting go of her gentle hoof and using it to gently stroke a bit of her soft and silky mane. "It's alright Twilight. I don't necessarily have my own throne either, but I don't let that get in the way of what I do as a prince."

Twilight just sighs softly, saying "I just really hope that I don't disappoint Princess Celestia for the event tomorrow morning."

"And I assure you that you won't." A female voice says to them. They turn their heads towards the door and see none other than Princess Celestia standing there. Both Twilight and Smarty bow down before the princess of the sun.

"There's no need for that now." Princess Celestia assures.

"Sorry!" Twilight says, giving a sheepish looking smile.

Celestia gave out a bit of a kind giggle and says "No need to apologize."

"Sorry!" Twilight apologizes again.

Princess Celestia keeps her smile and joins the prince and princess by the balcony. "I must admit that it is wonderful to actually be looking forward to the Summer Sun Celebration." She states.

"What do you mean?" Smarty asks, curious.

Princess Celestia looks at the tower and can see the shadow of her sister raising the moon. She turns back to both of the two. "For my subjects, it has always been a celebration of the defeat of Nightmare Moon. But for me…" Celestia sighs sadly, clearing her throat to continue. "It was just a terrible reminder that I had to banish my own sister."

"I guess I never really thought about it that way." Twilight says, feeling a bit bad.

A smile grows on Celestia's face and she looks at Twilight. "But now it has become a wonderful reminder of her transformation back into Princess Luna, and our happy reunion. I am so pleased that the both of you will be playing a role in the festivities. I know that it must be difficult to see your friends return to Ponyville."

Twilight lowers her head a bit. "Maybe a little." She sadly says. However, Celestia places her hoof gently under her chin and gently pulls it up to look at her.

"You may no longer be my student, Princess Twilight, but I hope you know that I will always be here if you need me. Just as I hope you both will always be there when I need you." Celestia says, smiling to the both of them.

"Thank you Princess." Smarty says, nodding his head.

"Now I suggest that the both of you get some sleep. It's a big day tomorrow." Celestia says, trotting back towards the door.

Princess Celestia leaves the balcony and begins to trot through the hallways. She was heading off to bed for a goodnight's rest. Even the main leader of Equestria needed to have rest when it came to events like this. All seemed silent in the hallways.

Little did she know that a long black vine of an unknown plant was following her… It made a soft, slithering sound like a snake. Finally, Princess Celestia catches onto the noise and is unable to see what it is when the black vine grabs her. All she could do was gasp and quickly yelp before she was knocked unconscious.


	2. The Answer Lies Within

The sound of birds was heard chirping, and the sun was brightly shining into Twilight's eyes while she was sleeping in the Canterlot bed. Next to her was her prince, Smarty. He was sleeping quite soundly and without a single snore. By what Twilight was hearing, it sounded like it was going to be a wonderful morning as it usually was.

Twilight began to slowly open her eyes with a smile upon her face. It was quite delightful for the morning to sound as peaceful like this. When they usually woke up, most ponies in the streets of Canterlot or Ponyville would sound quite busy. But this was unusually rare to happen.

This was a different kind of good morning to the sky though. When her eyes were still blurred to catch the blue sky, the other half of her eye had caught something that didn't seem quite right to her. Her eyes opened up all the way in shock and she gasped upon the discovery that she saw.

"Smarty!" She whispered, gently shaking him awake.

"Five more minutes, Twi… I'm still at the beach." Smarty groaned tiredly, not aware Twilight was trying to wake him up.

"No, really. Wake up!" She whispered yet again for his complete attention to wake up from his slumberland.

Smarty opened his eyes and sat up upon the bed next to Twilight. "What is it Twilight?" He asked, sounding both concerned and rather annoyed to be waking up from his slumber. "I was dreaming that I was at the beach with you sharing an ice cream cone for the both of us. It's the middle of the night."

"Not really Smarty." Twilight said, placing her warm hoof onto his. "It could be day or night, but I can't even tell."

Smarty thought about this for a few moments and then finally started to move the sheets off of him. "Alright then, let us see what this problem is that has wakened you up. I can assure you that it is still the middle of the night." He tells her, trying to assure her everything is fine.

He got up out of the bed they both shared and began to trot towards the large window. He took a look out of the window and he seemed to look rather surprised.

"Whoa…" He could only saw when he saw what he could not unsee from the way the sky looked. You could swear that it was almost the same reaction when he witnessed the floating sky castle of Black Darkness when he had ahold of The Key.

The sky looked completely separate by each of the different part of the day. One side of the sky was day and the other was night. The sun and moon weren't even moving whatsoever.

"Come on Smarty, I have a feeling that this is something that Star Shine might know about. Being an alicorn more than a million years old, he has to know a little more about this event." Twilight said while the both of them looked and observed the strange sky.

Everypony in the Canterlot Square were observing the sky in a confused sort of panic. They had no idea what was going on and were trying not to confuse it with the entire "Nightmare Moon returning" kind of scheme. That event was already dealt with when there were only six elements.

"What do you think it means?" Prince Blueblood shouted, in a panic that this was going to ruin his reputation as the next prince of Equestria. Everypony just ignores him and continues to observe what is happening in the skies.

Twilight, Spike and Smarty were both trotting outside with ease trying not to be spotted by the public eye. But seeing how everypony was outside, it was impossible for this to happen.

"Princess Twilight and Prince Smarty might know!" A random citizen of Canterlot exclaims loudly, pointing to the both of them.

Both the prince and princess are surrounded by concerned and worried ponies, who were asking many questions. Prince Smarty just did his job to ensure everypony that everything was going to be a-okay without a hitch. Princess Twilight just wondered why the sky was even like this. This wasn't even a part in the books she read on what would happen.

"Your highnesses, you must come with us at once." A guard said lowly to both the prince and princess.

Twilight, Spike and Smarty looked at the guard and nodded in immediate attention. By the guard's tone, he seemed rather concerned. They follow him towards the castle doors, left open for them.

Once they trotted into the main hall of the castle, one of the guards behind them shut the door to not get the attention of the worried ponies. Twilight was only determined to know what was going on.

"What is happening?" Twilight asked the guards, trying not to set off their worries.

"It's Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They've simply vanished into thin air!" The guards said at the same time. All Twilight, Spike and Smarty could do was gasp loudly upon hearing the news.

"Indeed they have." A voice says behind the royals. They both turn around to see the silver alicorn standing there. "And I worry for Celestia." It was Star Shine.

Twilight was in a mild panic, with the princesses disappeared, what would happen now? "But now what?" She asks.

"It means that you, Smarty and I are in charge. Princess Cadence is already too busy overseeing as the Princess of the Crystal Empire." Star Shine said.

"That doesn't really explain the odd form of the sky. Why isn't the sun or moon moving?" Smarty asked him, worried.

"In the matter of a fact, I do not know what the sky pattern means. But I have a feeling that you both will have to take charge alongside me until the princesses are found." Star Shine says, seeming to be rather calm. He finally turns his attention to some guards and looks them straight in the eye. "Guards, I want you both to continue the search for Princesses Celestia and Luna without raising any suspicion or panic from the civilians."

"Yes, your majesty." The guards say, and go galloping off outside of the castle to begin their continued search.

"I do not even have the power to move the sun or moon. The only time that I would be able to do that is if I was still Black Darkness. But thankfully I'm not, the last thing that would happen would mean killing the both of you." Star Shine said, not really having an idea to fix this.

Smarty approached the tall prince and placed his small hoof on his shoulder. "We did what we had to do to stop Black Darkness. If Maleficia had won, you would have ended up even destroying yourself."

Star Shine opened his mouth to say something, but another royal guard came bursting into the room. "YOUR HIGHNESS!" He announced, referring to Twilight. "There seems to be trouble down in Ponyville. The Everfree Forest… it seems to be, well… invading!"

Twilight and Smarty both gasped, because their friends were down in Ponyville, this could mean trouble for them. Real BIG trouble.

* * *

Every animal in Fluttershy's small cottage looked rather distressed and frightened. They were all gathered into the house, filling up each space in the cottage with not much room to move about. Fluttershy just trotted around, curious about why her critters were scared.

"Oh my, what is causing you all so much distress?" Fluttershy asks the both of them, and the large bear.

The large bear covers his eyes and groans with a sad quiet roar, pointing towards her door with one of his own paws.

"Well, I can assure all of you that there is nothing to be afraid of." Fluttershy says, trying not to worry any of the animals, and opens her front door to see what was going on outside. She just screams at the scene happening outside.

Giant black vines were scattering openly throughout the trees and ground, ready to grab at anything. Fluttershy just closes her door and looks back at her animals. "I think it's a good time to be afraid!"

* * *

At Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was busy pulling out the large vines out of the ground with the rest of her family. Applebloom, Granny Smith and Big Macintosh were helping her take out the vines.

"Come on everypony! Put your backs into it!" Applejack calls out and continues to pull out the large vines.

Applebloom proceeds to pull out a black vine, the length of the vine seems to go on for like ages. How long were those vines anyway?

"Dang nabbit, where are all these plants coming from? In fact, I don't think I've seen these before." Applejack says, and looks into the Everfree Forest, worried about the humans living in there at the village they had made.

* * *

The four human leaders, Reina, Rita, Sara and Rose seemed rather worried by the large vines that had come into the village. Most of the villagers seemed to be either panicking by the giant vines attempting to grab them, or they were trying to fight back against the vines by pulling them as if they were ordinary garden weeds.

"What are these things?" Reina said. "I don't remember a single thing about this mentioned in Equestria's history."

Rose gulped worryingly and said "I don't think that these were even written into the history of Equestria."

Rita was really annoyed by this. "Come on!" She says agitated. "First we have Maleficia trying to take over, and now these… plants are trying to cover everything here!"

"Relax Rita." Sara said, calming down her sister. "I've never seen or heard of those plants before either, but something tells me that this is going to be dangerous."

Reina took out a bit of a sigh, and said "Alright girls, looks like we'll have to use our bending powers."

"Ahh, been waiting to do this." Rita said, charging up the power in her.

Sara cheered and said "Let's do this!"

Reina closed her eyes and began to focus on her element to bend, Air. Rita's element was Earth, Rose's was Water and Sara's was fire. While they focused on building up the magic inside, the powers began to spark out large amounts of those elements. Most of the village folk took a few steps, hoping this will repel the plants.

Once they had built up the power of bending to a maximum, they moved their hands forward toward the plants and began to spread their powers towards them. The vines re-coiled a bit, staying still for a couple of moments before falling back into the forest. Fire, water, air and earth powers had caused them to retreat.

The four girls began to relax their powers, and began un-focusing on the powers they had, bringing it to a complete stop. They took a look at the forest, the black vines and plants began to spread out once again, with no effect done by their bending powers.

"I don't get it!" Rita angrily proclaimed. "Our bending powers usually work on enemies, but why not these guys?!"

"I'm not sure, but it didn't hold back them long enough." Reina said, thinking about the effect that their bending powers should have done already.

The sound of galloping and flying got their attention, and the four sisters turned around to see Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie approach the both of them. The four girls allowed the rest of their friends to catch their breath.

"There you are. Any luck in trying to repel them?" Applejack asked the both of them.

"Sadly, our powers of bending did not work as we expected for these plants." Sara said, sounding concerned about these plants. "Any of you?"

Rarity had a disappointed sigh, and said "Alas, their magic has simply put my magic on the fritz. I won't be able to use mine."

Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves and said "And there are storm clouds atop in the sky thundering away. I can't seem to get rid of them."

"Oh my, even I don't know how much longer I can take from these things." Fluttershy said, almost getting grabbed by a black vine. Luckily Rainbow came to the rescue and cut the vine off of her back right hoof.

"Well, let's face it ya'll." Applejack said, sounding worried and taking off her hat. "Within a matter of days, these plants will probably cover all of Equestria."

The nine of them just stand there and wonder what to do while more of the black plants and vines continue to grow throughout all of the Everfree and the rest of Equestria.

* * *

Twilight and Smarty were galloping down the stairs from the Canterlot Castle, Spike was riding on top of Smarty's back. They knew how their friends were in great, possibly grave danger and they were determined to save them at all costs.

"Where are you guys going?" Spike asked, wondering what was happening because of the "Everfree" attacking.

"We can't just leave our friends behind, we've got to get to Ponyville to help them out!" Twilight said to Spike. "But I just hope that we can make the train on time!"

"I don't think you realized Twilight, but don't the both of you have something." Spike asks, halting both Smarty and Twilight to a slow stop in the gardens. "You can both fly."

"Oh." Smarty said, blushing a bit in embarrassment for not realizing this. He opens up his wings and flaps them, lifting himself off the ground. Luckily, Spike was able to get off of Smarty.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Two small voices called out. Twilight turns to her left and sees Starlight and Dream Charmer, her children. "Where are you going? We want to come!" Starlight said.

"No." Twilight told them in a calm, firm tone. "We're going to Ponyville, but it is in danger right now. Stay here at the castle until we get back."

"Don't worry, you guys. You'll have Uncle Star Shine to talk to while your parents are absent." Spike assured the both of them.

Twilight flapped her wings and began to lift up into the air. She and Smarty finally took off into the sky, trying to avoid all the black spikey clouds that came before them, trying to shoot lightning at the both of them.

"Even the clouds are starting to act funny!" Smarty said, pointing at the ones they've passed.

Twilight thought for a few moments. "It must be one of the problems to why it's acting strange."

The both of them continue their flight towards Ponyville. They flew together, dropping to ascend towards the Golden Oaks Library. Sure she hasn't used it in a while, but she was sure that her friends were helping to make sure the books were dusted.

But of course, Twilight still continued to have trouble with her flight skills, and began to struggle to land while falling straight for the trunk of the large tree. Smarty of course, ignited the aura magic on his horn and used it to teleport the both of them into the tree.

Both of them made impact into two piles of books. These books they had considered a cushion from falling onto the ground. Both of them dug out of the piles of books. What a strange coincidence, their friends and the human leaders were in the same room. Twilight was annoyed for the fact that she needed to work on her flying.

"There ya both are!" Applejack said, helping Smarty out of the bookpile. "A lot's been happenin' since ya'll been in Canterlot."

Pinkie's tail began to twitch and she managed to jump out of the way before a large vine struck into the room. Rarity trots over to the window and uses the panel to sever the vine in half. "That doesn't really explain why all these plants are attacking." Twilight said.

Reina said "You were probably informed, but the Everfree Forest is spreading these plants everywhere and it's out of control. We tried to contain it with our bending, but to no avail."

Twilight trotted over to the case that had the elements of harmony. "Well in that case, whatever is spreading it, we'll need the elements of harmony to defeat whatever is doing this." She used her magic to place the elements onto each of her friend's necks. Smarty brought his Element of Love to his neck and tied it around him. They were ready, just like old times.

Twilight approached the window and observed the strange things around them. "Half-day, half-night, strange weather patterns and out-of-control plants."

A thought finally struck her! There was only one being that could have caused this at all times. "I think I know who we're up against." She proclaims, and everypony else nods in agreement.

All of the seven elements gathered together in a circle, ready to power their elements. Reina, Rita, Rose and Sara stood there, watching what they were going to do.

The elements ignited and each of the powerful gems unleashed a small rainbow beam that connected the seven of them, unleashing them into the center of the circle. The rainbow swirled around like a tornado briefly, bringing in the unusual draconequus himself. Discord.

"Winter Wrap-Up, winter wrap-up…" He was singing, while bathing in the shower, and then stopped in a happy surprise to the seven friends he knew.

"Ohh!" He said, laughing jokingly. He then swirled over to Twilight, letting his bathtub disappear. "Now Twilight, you have to make sure Celestia gives me a heads up before you summon me with your trinkets. I was in the middle of my shower."

"ENOUGH!" Twilight said, giving him a push after he had waved his butt in front of her to humiliate her. "Release Princess Celestia and Princess Luna at once and fix everything around Equestria right now!"

"Celestia and Luna were captured by Discord?" Sara wondered, worried.

Discord was rather taken back by this. This was not the greeting he had expected. "Whatever are you talking about Twilight?" He asks, not sure what is going on.

"We know that you captured them!" Smarty said, angrily and irritated by his draconequus friend.

"Please you two, why would you think that I would do anything like that? I'm reformed, remember?" Discord said, placing a halo onto his head.

Rainbow Dash yelled "Yeah right! This has your hoofprints all over the place!" Rita nods in agreement.

Discord teleports over between both Rita and Rainbow Dash, saying "Just so you both know, I never did any of this." He finally used his legs to kick both Rita and Rainbow in the butt before teleporting back into the circle. "Such accusations. And here I thought we were friends." He began to use the good ol' puppy dog eyes.

"Drop the act buster! We're onto you!" Pinkie Pie shouted, very suspicious of Discord's activities.

"Please girls and Smarty, would innocent me do this?" Discord said, pointing to the weird stuff outside.

"YES!" Everyone even the four humans says.

"I say we blast him back to stone!" Rarity shouts. Rainbow and Pinkie nod in agreement and begin to charge up their elements.

"Wait!" Fluttershy says, stopping them. "What if Discord is telling the truth?"

Discord takes a sigh of relief and says "Finally, somepony who sees that I never did a single thing wrong. With good Fluttershy here to defend me."

"Then if you didn't do it, then do you know who?" Twilight asked, still annoyed.

"Me give out who did this plants and clouds business? I surely do not know! But after all the hoof and finger-pointing and the insulting of my good name, I don't think I'll help the both of you." Discord said and began to knit the vine that Rarity severed. Twilight groans in annoyance, she had just about had enough.

"Why don't you go and ask your zebra friend Zecora? Surely she might know what is going on." Discord said, pointing to the zebra carrying her equipment from the Everfree Forest outside of the Golden Oaks Library.

All eleven of them left the Golden Oaks Library and joined Zecora outside as fast as they could. By the way that Zecora looked, it seemed pretty bad.

Zecora looked up at Twilight who wondered what had happened to her. "From my home I had to flee, the Everfree has grown too wild, even for me."

Smarty approached her, helping her get her equipment off of her. "But do you know what is going on? Where are all these black plants and vines coming from?"

"Hmmm…" Zecora thought for a moment and then reached into the satchel on her small wagon, which was a purple potion. "I'm afraid it's a mystery to me as well. But this potion if combined with a spell, could help. I dare not use it myself, the results would be tragic, it only responds to alicorn magic. Princess Twilight, you can turn the potion from purple to white, and then you might see why the sky is day and night."

Zecora placed down the potion onto the ground. Twilight bent down on one leg and began to focus her magic. She began to use the dark magic that King Sombra used at the time and fired it to the potion, changing the potion magically from purple to white.

"Say Zecora…" Smarty asked, wondering about something. "Is it possible to have more others find out what is happening at the same time?"

Zecora clears her throat and says "If a few others take a sip of it together combined, you might just find out on time."

"So after she takes a sip, then it's me?" Smarty said. Zecora nodded in agreement.

"If you two are going in, I'm going in with you." Reina said, standing brave.

"Alright, your loss." Rainbow Dash said, worried of what would happen next.

Twilight picked up the potion and began to gulp down a few sips, then passed it onto Smarty, after passing it onto Reina. They both took a taste of it, with it tasting like an ordinary dull potion not perfected yet.

"Doesn't seem to working-" Twilight managed to get out before a flash of white came before her eyes. Reina's and Smarty's eyes were also covered with white.

* * *

Twilight, Smarty and Reina wiped the white from their eyes and looked around them. The potion must have teleported them somewhere different. It seemed to look like an old castle back in the day.

"Where are we?" Twilight said, wondering where we were.

"I'm not sure, but it all seems to look different." Smarty said in agreement. Was the potion all this time just teleportation?

"NOT ANOTHER STEP!" A voice boomed out, grabbing Twilight, Smarty and Reina's attention. They turned to the two thrones and could see that certain mare standing there. It was Princess Luna herself and she was alright.

"Princess Luna, we've been looking for you. Why did you and her disappear?" Reina said, approaching her from the bottom of the royal hall. "Surely there has to be some explaination."

All Princess Luna could do was stare at all three of them with a rather angry and sullen glare. "Princess Luna, are you alright?" Smarty asked.

Luna stared for a few more moments, then angrily said "Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?!"

"Precious light? What are you talking about?" Twilight asked, worried and knowing something bad was going to happen.

Princess Luna trotted over to the middle of the thrones, overviewing the three of them. "There can only be one princess in Equestria, and that princess… WILL BE ME!" She yelled angrily, with her voice echoing throughout the room.

The power of her stomping broke open the window behind her and she ignited her horn, using her powers to move the moon. Twilight finally realized what was going on and silently gasped. The moon blocked the sun all together, bringing in dark rays of evil.

The rays created a dark mist that began to slowly swirl around Princess Luna. All Princess Luna could do was gasp when the mist of darkness surrounded her and placed her into a bright glowing orb. Reina, Twilight and Smarty watched in complete awe at the sullen transformation moving within the glowing orb. Finally, the orb had broken free and Princess Luna had turned into a giant Celestia-sized mare. Her eyes opened, revealing the cat-like eyes. What they saw was no longer Princess Luna, it was none other than Nightmare Moon.

The evil mare began to cackle loudly and laugh with her sharp teeth baring out while the moonlight shone all throughout Equestria, blocking out the sun's light. Reina, Twilight and Smarty realized now what was happening. Nightmare was fulfilling to succeed in her role of bring everlasting night. All they could do was watch in horror.

This couldn't be good. In fact, it was a situation turned out worse for the three of them.


	3. The Root of the Problem

Nightmare Moon stood above the three laughing wickedly. All Twilight, Smarty and Reina could do was just stand there with their mouths open at what had just happened. They just couldn't believe their eyes, why would Nightmare Moon come back at a time like this. Princess Luna herself swore she'd never turn into Nightmare Moon again from her jealousy, but to help protect Equestria.

Nightmare Moon stopped her dark laughter and focused on the three of them with a sharp, angry glare. Smarty, Twilight and Reina slowly backed up when she made given them that face. Her horn charged brightly, bringing out a beam of magic onto the ceiling of wherever they were. Twilight gasped, the ceiling was about to collapse.

Reina was just about lucky enough to have grabbed both Smarty and Twilight by the time the ceiling above them was collapsing. The parts of the beam-hit ceiling collapsed onto where they originally stood and they had scooted across the ground, with little scrapes done.

All three of them got up off the ground to the sound of hooves nearby and they gazed upon who it was before them. Princess Celestia! She seemed to have a bit of a sad look on her face when she came into the room… or was she in the room the whole time?

Nightmare Moon trotted slowly out of the smoke of the once-was ceiling, standing there in a confrontation with her own sister. Celestia flew up into the air, looking down at her sister. But Nightmare Moon wasn't going down without a fight. She fired a beam towards her elder sister, who narrowly dodged to the side, breaking open another part of the ceiling, revealing the clear full moon.

Celestia landed on her hooves and stood in another confrontation with her younger sister. This was the time for the three of them to stop this fight. All three of them blocked Nightmare Moon's path.

"Princess Luna! What are you doing?!" Reina called out. "This isn't you right now!"

Smarty shouted "Think of how long you were banished to the moon for! Doesn't that ring a bell for you?"

"We might have to send you back there again if you don't stop and realize what you're doing!" Twilight shouted, trying to snap some sense into Nightmare Moon.

"Luna! I will not fight you!" Princess Celestia angrily shouted, seeming to have not looked at the three figures in front of her even once. "You must lower the moon! It is your duty!"

Nightmare Moon just chuckled in joking to what her sister said. "Luna? No! I am… NIGHTMARE MOON!" She shouted, surprising Reina. "And I have only one task to do… TO DESTROY YOU!" and fired another dark beam of magic towards Celestia.

Celestia reacted quickly to this and flew upwards, dodging the beam thrown towards her. Nightmare Moon began to take pursue, following her sister into the skies. Smarty and Twilight opened their wings and began to fly after the two, Reina just ran through the castle, keeping an eye on what was happening.

Smarty took off faster than Twilight was going, he needed to put an end to this fight now. With the plants growing around, this is even worse situation. Nightmare Moon was charging a beam straight for Celestia's chest. Smarty knew he had to do what had to be done and went in front of Nightmare Moon.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He shouted, with the beam going straight for him, but passing through him like it was nothing.

The beam had hit Celestia and the sun princess had let out an injured scream, stopping her flying and falling towards the castle ground. "CELESTIA!" Twilight shouted, flying towards the fallen princess. Nightmare Moon just chuckled in the clear moonlight, being victorious in destroying her sister.

Twilight flew down towards the lifeless body of Celestia. "No…" She softly spoke out, not seeing the princess moving. "Why would Princess Luna do this? Why now?" She softly began to cry, releasing tears from her eyes. Smarty and Reina stood by the sidelines, tears filled their eyes as well, saddened to see the death of a leader in the wrong time. What seemed to be that all hope was lost… became a quick change in the moments after.

Celestia rose up from the top of the ground, bruised around the chest from the magic beam, looking up at her own sister. Twilight stopped crying and did a happy gasp. "You're alive!" She cheered, but Celestia didn't turn to look at her. "Celestia?"

After a few moments, Celestia turned towards a piece of stone ground. "Oh dear sister, you give me no choice… but to use the Elements of Harmony!" She cried out, pulling back that piece of stone. Behold, the six original elements were shining brightly.

Twilight, Smarty and Reina covered their eyes briefly when they were revealed. "The Elements? But that's what they looked like… in the past." Twilight said quietly to herself.

All three of them began to watch the events on Luna's banishment unfold when Celestia took the Elements, ignited them in a battle with Nightmare Moon. The beam of the Elements covered Nightmare Moon and sending her to the moon. It had placed her symbol onto the moon itself.

* * *

There was a flash of white light, sending the three of them into another flashback. They were in a completely outdoor environment with crickets chirping in the dark and the pond plants singing. They looked upon the crystal-like oak tree there. What was that tree?

"The Tree of Harmony. So it exists after all." A voice called out behind them. All three of them turned around, it was both Princess Celestia and Luna.

Smarty looked upon the tree, studying it carefully. It seemed to have Celestia, Luna and Twilight's cutie marks on the trunk, but there was one in the shape of a heart with two crossed objects… His cutie mark.

"Are you sure this will work?" Princess Luna asked in a soft, worried tone while they gathered the Elements from the tree.

"We can use the Elements in order to defeat Discord by any means. As long as the Tree remains, it'll possess a greater magic than will defend Equestia without the Elements in its possession." Celestia said behind Twilight, talking to Luna.

* * *

Everything began to flash white again and Reina, Twilight and Smarty were back in the real time. They shook the flashback juice off of them and took a look at their friends who seemed rather surprised. Reina stared back at her three other sisters with a really confused look as to why they were looking surprised.

"Why are you all looking at us like that?" Smarty said, breaking the silence.

"It's just that…" Applejack spoke out first. "You had all of us worried for the three of you. You were all murmuring and not to mention the crying from Twilight."

Discord appeared behind Twilight. "I for one found it kind of funny. You should really do an entertainment like that for a living." He said, with Twilight rolling her eyes.

"But did you manage to find out whose flank we need to kick?" Rainbow Dash said, mimicking some fighting moves.

"Well…" Smarty said, remembering what he saw. "There isn't an evil plot going on. But from what we've seen, the Tree of Harmony is in danger."

"The tree of… what now?" Pinkie asked, curious about it.

"According to what we've seen," Reina told them. "This is the tree that first formed and created the Elements of Harmony." Discord listened away while eating from a small bag of popcorn.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go save the… tree!" Applejack said, pointing towards the Everfree Forest.

All eleven of them ran off towards the Everfree Forest, ready to begin another adventure. Discord stayed behind, giving them a bit of a friendly wave to give them good luck. Then he realized there was no more popcorn. He just guffaws and says "I'm going to need more popcorn."

* * *

The eleven of them faced the entrance of the Everfree Forest. The vines started to flow throughout the trees of the forest, covering throughout most of the forest. By the state the forest was in, it didn't seem like it would be surviving soon enough as well.

"I remember this path…" Fluttershy said in her soft voice. "It was when we were first finding the elements of harmony."

"Wasn't mine different?" Smarty asked, facing Fluttershy.

"That was when you were fighting the Changelings during the wedding of you and Twilight." She told him, beginning to trot forward onto the path. Twilight was leading the way.

* * *

The eleven of them journeyed into the forest, the sky starting to grow darker by each step that they took into the crooked bushes. The path seemed to go on for what would only feel like it was just like the beginning of the Element hunt.

"I found something!" Twilight called out, bringing the others closer. It was a very small pond with rocks to hop across for the rest of them. Most of the water seemed to be green most likely because of the black plants growing from below. Twilight took a small rock and threw it into the water. The rock floated to the top before melting away which was something rocks never did.

"Come on, we can cross." Twilight said, jumping onto the rocks. "I'll go first."

Twilight hopped each rock with only a few stubbles, nearly almost falling into the water. She could fly, but seeing all the vines, she'd most likely get captured by the vines if she flew.

She made it across the rocks and looked across to her other friends. Each of them went one at a time to cross the dangerous rocks. By the way the color of the pond was, it would seem dangerous for the others if on contact.

Twilight moved across the bushes to think about the plant situation. Where did these things even come from anyway and why were they trying to invade? Surely the Tree of Harmony would have defended the land of Equestria with its powerful magic and kept it from doing so.

Suddenly, a spray of gas came in through the bush she was behind. The smell of the air began to make her cough slowly. She had this same air come to her before and knew it by the smell. It was a toxin that the plants were bringing out now that she was alone. Giant plants rose from behind the bush, spraying her with the toxin. Twilight was continuing to cough while getting sprayed by the plants.

Her body and mind began to feel both weak and tired. The plants were spraying her from each corner, that it was pretty much the only things that she was able to see. "Smarty!" She called out, sounding like she was in danger and was sleepy. She tried to move back to the bushes, but would be blocked by one of the crab-plants. Finally, her body just gave out of all its strength to the toxin, having her fall to the ground. She had fallen unconscious.

"Is everything alright Twilight?" Smarty called out behind the bush, trotting into the bush. He gasped at the sight he had saw when the crab-plants surrounded her. One of them was about to take a bite out of most of her.

A giant lasso grabbed hold of that plant and distracted the other plants to turn to the others. Applejack and the others took the fight to the plants, while Smarty ran to help out Twilight.

"Twilight, wake up!" Smarty said, seeing that she thankfully wasn't dead. "Come on, you can wake. I believe in you."

Twilight still was unconscious, but was starting to move a bit. "Come on Twilight, get up." Smarty softly spoke, gently placing his gentle lips onto her soft lips, giving her a gentle kiss.

Twilight groaned tiredly after Smarty let go of the kiss. Smarty's smile grew when Twilight slowly opened her eyes. "Wha- What happened?" She said in a confused tone.

"Those plants attacked you and tried to eat you when you were knocked unconscious." Smarty said, gently stroking her cheek. "I was really worried about you when this happened."

"Don't worry Smarty. I'm alright now." Twilight said, holding onto Smarty's hoof while he helped her up off the ground.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's finish this." Rita said. "I want these plants gone by now."

Twilight and Smarty nodded to their friend, agreeing. Both of them trotted towards their friends to continue their journey to the Tree.

* * *

The eleven of them finally made it to the ruins of Celestia and Luna's old castle, the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. The plants were now starting to grow very out-of-control, and it was to the point they were stomping on the vines to keep them from attacking.

"Alright, we've arrived." Rose said, looking at the castle. "Now we must find where the roots of all these plants are."

"Wouldn't there be one though for these things?" Sara asked.

"Very true." Twilight said, curious about the speedy growth of the plants and their vines. "From what I see, they must have one root all together by the looks of it."

"Guys! Look!" Smarty shouted, pointing out the small hole where all the huge vines were coming out of. "That must be where the Tree of Harmony is!"

"You're right Smarty, but… how do we get down there?" Reina asked.

The sound of Pinkie falling was heard, each of them turning to see Pinkie falling down a flight of stairs to the bottom. "Take the stairs silly!" She shouted out.

They took the stairs to the bottom, below the ruins. They came forward towards the hole, gasping at what they saw. The Tree of Harmony itself, covered with the black plants. The color that the tree originally was had been faded, turning stone gray.

"I think it's dying!" Fluttershy said, worried about the tree.

Twilight trotted forward towards the tree and studied it carefully. The vines on the tree were moving all about the special tree, trying to crush it. A majority of the vines were around the trunk, choking it from getting the magic and air it needed. A vine approached Twilight and grabbed her. She gasped when it took a hold of her front right leg and used her magic to sever the vine off of her. Then, the idea struck her, reflecting on what Celestia said.

"I think what we have to do now." Twilight said, approaching her friends and husband. They took a look at her carefully knowing that it sounded like the only solution to the problem. "We have to give the tree the Elements of Harmony."

Everypony was in complete shock by this statement. Give up the Elements of Harmony? That would be like selling their pony soul to Tartarus to have. Rainbow Dash didn't look so willingly to give away her element of Loyalty.

"Whoa whoa… If you do that, then how are we supposed to turn Discord to stone just in case?" Rainbow Dash said, disagreeing with her idea. "The elements have always been connected to us."

"And many times, the evil have tried to destroy the Elements of Harmony. I mean, take a look at Black Darkness. He tried to kill me, but we had to change him back to Star Shine thanks to the Elements of Harmony." Smarty said, placing his hoof on his chest.

"They always will be connected to us, no matter what." Twilight said. "But if we do not act fast, we still may be too late in helping the Tree."

Rarity came forward to Twilight, saying "I'm with you Twilight. With Discord reformed, I believe he might not cause any more trouble. So I guess we just have to rely on our friendship with him." Everypony nodded in agreement.

"I'm not sure if it's a good idea." Rita said. "Just keep them in case Maleficia finds a spell that returns her to this world."

"No worries." Twilight said. "The spell the elements did at the time was to seal her off in that world. She won't be able to come back."

"Well I do believe you Twilight." Reina said. "But you should give the Tree back what it needs to survive, or these plants will cover us."

Twilight nodded in agreement, igniting the magic on her horn to take the element jewels off of her friends and Smarty. The four humans and the rest watched as Twilight flew up with the elements close to the tree.

Twilight spun the elements all around her at once, ready to place them back. The vines on the tree became aware of Twilight's presence and began to coil around her like a snake. Using her magic, she moved the other elements first into their rightful places, then focused on Smarty's element of love, placing it into the trunk. The vines just about covered her completely when she inserted her element into the middle of the tree.

The Tree of Harmony started to spring life back into its trunk, lighting up back into its original crystal-like color. It powered up everything that every element gave it, and then fired away with a big blast. The vines around the tree became vaporized by the blast of the tree's power and was vaporizing by every single one around Equestria.

A group of the vines uncovered two large amounts that they had captured, and with a shining light, vaporized the last of them to see what the two were. But it was not a what, but who. It was none other than Princess Celestia and Luna.

Twilight was really happy to see Princess Celestia and galloped forward towards the two alicorns, throwing forward to give them both a hug. "I knew you could do it Twilight." Princess Celestia said, proud of Twilight for having to do what had to be done.

A spark alit in Twilight's eyes, the Tree had begun to power again, spreading a long rainbow like root down its trunk and onto the soil. A little small sprout came out of the tree, and Twilight and the other princesses approached. Her friends and husband also needed to see this.

The sprout opened up fast, revealing from a large amount of light, a box. But not an ordinary box that they've ever seen before in these parts. Reina approached and began to observe the box; she hadn't even recognized this from Equestria's history books either. But it had seven firm locks on it.

"Seven locks… seven keys." Twilight said, observing the box. "But where's the keys? How can we open it if there are no keys known to be found?"

"Well, I think this is something you won't be solving alone." Princess Celestia said. "I trust you'll have a time searching for it."

* * *

All eleven of them were coming out of the Everfree Forest, starting to think about what was in the mysterious box. But they were surprised by the sudden appearance of flags, and applause that Discord himself had created.

"Congratulations to all of you! You did it! You all saved Equestria once again!" Discord said, cheering. "Did you all blast the beastie with your Elements of Harmony and bending skills? Hey wait a minute…"

Discord teleported to Applejack and shrunk down to see something was missing. "Now where are those elements of harmony, your true weapons to defeat evil?" He asked.

"…Gone." Applejack said, sounding a bit sad to have let go of her element.

"Gone?" Discord said, surprised by this. "Gone…" His claws were placed together, as if he was up to something.

"But we're still friends." Fluttershy said. "And unless you want to lose all these friends, you'll stop doing what you're thinking of doing and help clean up the town."

Discord scowled and said "Oh fine." Then he snapped his claws, putting a maid costume on him. "But I don't do windows."

Smarty watched Discord start to walk off and turned to Twilight, saying "One thing I'm curious about is how the plants even appeared in the first place."

"Hmm, that's funny." Discord said, stopping. "I could swear that those seeds I planted should have sprung eons ago."

"What did you say?!" Twilight shouted at Discord who just about hinted that he planted them.

"Oh why should I tell you when you could see it for yourself?" Discord said, giving her the potion that brought her into flashbacks.

Twilight sighed in annoyance. She just wanted to get this over with, so she took a drink and let the flashback take her to when Discord was about to be first turned into stone.

* * *

"Playtime is over for you Discord!" Celestia shouted to Discord, when he was evil.

"Oh I doubt that!" Discord said, conjuring up the black coal-like seeds. "Hungry?" Loads of the seeds landed onto the ground and dug themselves in.

"_Well, seeing that my original plan wasn't working out, I had to go straight into Plan B. The plunder seeds were supposed to capture the princesses a thousand years ago, but the magic of the Tree of Harmony still remained strong."_

* * *

Twilight exited the flashback now that the truth had been revealed to her. "You do realize that this is information we could have used an hour ago?!" She shouted again, realizing he might be wasting their time.

"And I rob you of being a princess? What kind of friend do you think I am?" Discord said, causing Twilight to roll her eyes.

"Well, you don't have to worry Twilight. We're all safe now." Smarty said, approaching her and placing his hoof around her.

Twilight just smiled at her husband. He was right after all, and it was time for another mystery to solve with him and the rest of her friends. The box was still in her mind after all.

What was in the box that was so important? Well, it seems like it'll be another adventure for the Mane Seven.


	4. Spectres

**A/N: I apologize if the chapter was a little short. But of course, I'm in my two weeks of summative and an upcoming exam. But do hold on tight, a chapter takes some time to get out.**

* * *

Twilight sat at the nearby desk, reading from a small book for some information on the mysterious box she and her friends found at the Tree of Harmony. This was the one history book to her that could tell her everything from Equestria top to bottom, even every secret dug into the roots.

Unfortunately, she isn't able to find any valuable information on this matter and she annoyingly groans, tossing the book into the pile of history books she has dug all over the Golden Oaks Library, all of them landing in a completely organized pile. Smarty was just coming up the stairs when he saw her doing them and wondered what the hay was going on with her and why she now looked so annoyed.

"What's wrong hun?" Smarty asked, approaching Twilight.

Twilight sighed. "I just can't help it Smarty," she said. "I'm just too focused on that chest that we saw a week ago. I mean, we did save Equestria, but whatever's in that box has to be important."

Smarty gave her mane a bit of a stroke and said "Don't get stressed over this. You never know what could happen. A key might pop up soon enough; we just have to know what each key looks like."

Twilight looked into Smarty's eyes for a few moments, then looked down and sighed. "You're right Smarty. I've just so distracted all this time by the mysterious box, it's been driving me a bit crazy."

"How about a visit to Canterlot?" Smarty suggested, smiling. "Prince Star Shine might be able to find some answers about that chest."

Twilight turned to the window, looking out towards the Canterlot Castle on the side of the tall mountain. Surely, Smarty was right about getting some answers from Star Shine. Sure he used to be Black Darkness, but he was useful for getting information out. He seemed to know everything from the rise and fall of Monoceros to the most recent events. She turned back to Smarty and nodded her head saying "Alright, sounds good."

Smarty opened up the big window and spread his wings. He slowly flapped them, lifting him off of the ground. Twilight opened up her wings as well, joining Smarty. Both of them flew out of the window on a straight course to Canterlot.

"Wait, hold up!" Smarty said, stopping the both of them.

Twilight looked at him with curiosity. "What is it Smarty?" She had asked him.

Smarty flew down towards the nearby stand and took out quite a couple of golden shining bits. He handed it over to the employee who was standing there, looking quite happy. He had owed this employee a couple of bits for having to buy some groceries for the library since he and Twilight hadn't used it in quite a long time.

"Thank you very much Prince Smarty." The employee said, bowing a bit.

Smarty smiled at the employee. "You are very welcome sir." He said, in his royal sound-like voice, and then flying upward into the air to join Twilight again.

"I owed him some bits." He told her.

Twilight just gives him a look of being a bit confused and then rolled her eyes with a smile on her face. It was going to be one of those days with Smarty being distracted by something else some of the time, wasn't it? Oh well, she had research to catch up on.

"Come on now," Twilight said, flapping forward towards Canterlot. "Whatever's in that chest could be detailed, and Star Shine's the expert on that kind of stuff."

Smarty just flaps forward, following Twilight towards the grand city in the sky.

* * *

The city of Canterlot was bustling with ponies and humans. It seemed to be a beautiful day for those two kinds of races to get out there and enjoy the day, talking to one another. Sure, they still had the snobbish ponies that made themselves look better and superior than them, but hey, it was all working out just fine.

Twilight and Smarty flew down towards the balcony of the Canterlot Castle, making a safe landing on the tiles with their own four hooves. Sure, Twilight stumbled a little bit when she landed, but she was starting to get used to her flying.

The both of them began to trot out of the balcony's view and into the hallway of the castle. A few guards roamed here or there, but most of them were most likely in the throne room of Princess Celestia, to make sure that nothing bad can put her into serious harm.

They went down the long hallway, leading towards the public quarters of Prince Star Shine. Smarty opened both of the double doors with his bare hooves, bringing light into the room. The entire quarters of Star Shine was in the form of a huge library of books on history and every single little detail about pre-Equestria.

"So many books!" Twilight said, rather excited. She's never seen so many books before in her whole life… well, besides the Crystal Empire's library. She makes a tiny squee.

"Now Twilight," Smarty said, raising an eyebrow with a soft smile. "Let's not get too excited, we're both here for some information."

"May I help the both of you?" A voice said from behind them.

Both of them turned around to see who it was. It was none other than Prince Star Shine. He stood before them, looking bored like most librarians would, except Twilight. She would be full of joy when showing ponies around the library.

"Star Shine… you have a humongous library." Twilight said, too distracted by all of the books on the shelves to even pay attention to what she came here for.

Star Shine and Smarty just looked at her like she was crazy for a brief moment. Beside the entire incident about the 'late letter to Celestia', they had never seen her act a bit like this ever. Smarty just clears his throat loudly, snapping Twilight out of her book fantasies and getting back on-topic.

"We're looking for information." Smarty said to the tall alicorn prince. "But it's not of the usual, in fact; it's for something that hasn't been seen before. We uncovered it when we had saved Equestria from becoming plant food."

"And what is this item that you're speaking about?" Star Shine asked, raising an eyebrow a bit.

"It's a mysterious box that grew out of the Tree of Harmony after we had given it the Elements." Twilight said. "It has a crystal-like appearance on the outside of the box with seven locks to open. I do not know what the inside is like, or what's inside the box."

"Hmmm, a box." Star Shine said, spreading his wings and flying over to the nearest bookshelf of Equestrian History. "A box, a box. Don't you worry, I'll look through the history books and see any references to this box you have mentioned."

Twilight and Smarty waited patiently while Star Shine began the search through his library. It didn't take too long, but Star Shine managed to find a book out of a different shelf from his library of books. It seemed to be a book that had symbol of a tree on it.

He flew down and placed the book onto one of his desks. Twilight trots over to the book and uses her magic to look through the pages of the book. While she's flipping through the pages, Smarty joins her in the search through the book. The pages keep flipping to the other end of the book until Twilight stopped on a certain particular page relating to that chest.

"I've found it." Twilight said. "Now let's get reading it to find more details on the chest."

Twilight scanned through the text of the pages and even looked at the small picture of the box as told in legend, never had been opened ever. She finally began to read it.

"The box itself is a mysterious figure that pops up once every thousand and three years. Nopony of the past knows about why it comes from the Tree of Harmony, but the box is said to have something inside, but they are unknown about it. If the Elements were reunited with the tree, the box will come out permanently, waiting for its opening from the seven keys that it so requires. Many tried to force the box open, but only seven magical keys unknown to them can be used to open the chest."

Smarty turned towards Star Shine who was right next to him. "Star Shine, can we borrow this book? We just need to write down more details on this. We'll bring it back as soon as we're done." He asked.

"Of course." Star Shine said with a smile. "Take all the time you need with it."

Twilight placed the book in her inventory and bowed to Prince Star Shine to thank him, turning around to leave with Smarty. "Wait. One more thing." Star Shine's voice called out. Both Twilight and Smarty turned to see what else Star Shine wanted to tell them.

Star Shine took out a purple book with the symbol of Celestia on it. He handed it to Smarty. "While I was searching through the ruins of Celestia and Luna's old castle, I found this in a secret room that they must have hid it in. It's a journal." He told them, giving them some information.

Twilight's eyes sparked a bit, releasing an idea. "We could use it. When me, Smarty or one of our friends has an issue that they had dealt with, they can write about it in the journal." She said to the both of them.

"That's a considerably great idea Twilight!" Smarty said.

Star Shine said "Well, I'll see the both of you later."

"Alright," Smarty said to him. "Come see us in Ponyville anytime when you're free."

Twilight and Smarty both bowed down to the now-good Prince Star Shine and trotted off while he was waving in farewell. The two of the young alicorns proceeded back to the balcony where they came in and flapped their wings, flying down back to Ponyville.

* * *

In the high mountains of Equestria, a figure's shadow slowly crept over the mountainside, looking down towards the view of Canterlot and Ponyville, an all in one view. The mysterious figure was not the shape of a tall alicorn, but shorter than that. The breathing of the figure was slow and rough.

The yellow eyes that opened on the figure reflected off of the ground, giving a glare towards the city and town. Then the figure laughed, with an evil sinister sound. Who was this figure and what was he planning to do? You'll find out soon enough, that'll be something for later.


End file.
